Big Data Career Notes: September 2021 Edition

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In this monthly feature, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the big data community. Whether it’s a promotion, new company hire, or even an accolade, we’ve got the details. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!

John Coughlan

StorCentric, a provider of secure data management solutions, appointed John P. Coughlan as its chief financial officer. Before joining StorCentric, Coughlan held the CFO position at CoreBTS, a reseller of Cisco- and Microsoft-centric software, and Penthera Partners, an early-stage SaaS company. 

“I am delighted to join StorCentric, a company that is redefining the data management and protection space,” said Coughlan. “I look forward to the opportunity to assist such an enviable world-class executive team in working across all areas of the company to generate ideas and implement strategies, create value and build revenue, and also importantly – ensure our partners enjoy unparalleled revenue opportunities, while our end customers enjoy dramatic and long-term ROI.”

Portia Crowe 

Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of Accenture, appointed former Army Futures Command’s Network Cross Functional Team Chief Data Officer Dr. Portia Crowe as its chief data strategy director for defense.  Crowe is a 2021 FED 100 recipient, an Army Top 25 Acquisition Professional, and has received five Civilian Service Medals. 

“Federal leaders rely on accurate and timely data more than ever to optimize business performance,” said Crowe. “I look forward to helping Accenture Federal Services’ clients keep pace with today’s digital world, solve vexing digital transformation challenges, and achieve operational efficiencies.”

Abhijit Dey and Gregg Machon

DataCore Software, a software-defined storage solutions provider for block, file and object storage, welcomed Abhijit Dey as its new chief product officer.  Dey comes to Datacore from Agari, a cybersecurity solutions provider, where he held the role of senior vice president of its product management and research and development division. 

In addition, DataCore Software welcomed Gregg Machon as its vice president of its Americas sales division. Machon brings years of holding sales leadership positions at Qumulo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Nimble Storage, SolidFire, NetApp, Isilon, and EMC.

Margaret Francis

Sumo Logic, the provider of the Sumo Logic Continuous Intelligence Platform, appointed Margaret Francis to its board of directors as an independent board member. Francis is president and chief operating officer for Armory, an open source continuous delivery software company, and also serves on its board of directors. 

“With the digitization of business driving the pace of change at breakneck speed, most organizations are looking to adopt modern technologies that help them to move faster, deliver better, do things smarter and mitigate risk, all at the same time,” said Francis. “Global digital businesses of massive scale use the Sumo Logic platform as a proven part of the modern technology stack. The technology that powers the products is solid, and I believe well positions enterprises that need to operate and secure digital services in an increasingly complex and cloud-first world. I’m honored to be joining such an experienced team and look forward to helping the company as it moves into the next phase of its journey.”

Pamela Fusco

Splunk Inc., the provider of the data-to-everything platform, appointed Pamela Fusco as its chief information security officer. Fusco brings to Splunk over 30 years of enterprise security experience, including having held CISO and chief security officer roles at Apollo Education Group, Digex, Merck, and served as executive vice president and head of global information security at Citibank.

“Splunk is essential for organizations and governments as they navigate the ever-changing threat landscape and I’m honored to lead its exceptional security team,” said Fusco. “I’ve trusted Splunk to help secure operations on numerous occasions and there is no other cloud-first company that truly turns data into doing. Succeeding in cybersecurity requires anticipating change, and Splunk is on the cutting-edge of security innovation.”

Brian Goodwin

Synthetaic, a synthetic data company, promoted Brian Goodwin to the newly created role of chief technology officer. Goodwin was promoted from his role as a principal data scientist and helped create the company’s core technology,  including the company’s rapid automatic image categorization AI engine and massively extensible generative adversarial network tool. 

“By successfully pioneering the use of Generative Adversarial Networks for high stakes industry use cases, Synthetaic has been able to unlock capabilities that — without generative AI — would otherwise be impossible for our partners across geospatial, medical, and defense industries,” said Goodwin. “I’m honored to step into the role of Chief Technology Officer and to continue to support a company that is quickly proving that the midwest is a major player in developing world-changing technologies.” 

Rony Greenberg, Matti Rosengart, and Aliza Tamir

Rony Greenberg joined SQream, which has developed a platform for accelerating analytics at scale, as its chief business development officer. Greenberg has held senior management and business development positions in several start-up companies, including Eyesight Technologies, Paz Enterprise, Eunambol, IXI Mobile, as well as board membership positions at VIBE Imaging Analytics and NeoClarus.

Matti Rosengart also joined SQream as its vice president of the research and development unit. Rosengart has served as director of catalog and classification at eBay Inc. and was VP of R&D in start-up companies including Netformx, Orchestra Group, Time to Know, and Zend Technology.

Lastly, Aliza Tamir joined SQream as its chief marketing officer. Before joining SQream, Tamir was on the founding team of Microsoft Israel. In her 16 years in the company, she has held several senior positions at Microsoft Global in Seattle and Europe. 

Brian Hamel

Veritas Technologies appointed Brian Hamel as its executive vice president of worldwide field operations. Hamel brings over 30 years of infrastructure leadership experience to VeritasTechnologies, including serving as an enterprise account manager at IBM. Most recently he was senior VP of the cloud business group at Oracle.

“Veritas is the recognized market leader in enterprise data protection and customers across all industries rely on Veritas to keep their critical information safe and protected from threats such as ransomware,” said Hamel. “The company is well-positioned to help organizations keep pace with the growth and complexity of the cloud as data and workforces become even more distributed. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to drive growth for the company at such a crucial time by helping customers modernize their approach to data protection across their on-prem, hybrid and cloud environments.”

Andy Kofoid

Databricks, the data and artificial intelligence company, appointed Andy Kofoid as its president of global field operations.  Kofoid brings to Databricks more than 30 years of experience building, scaling and transforming high-growth software and cloud businesses. Most recently, he served as president of the North America region at Salesforce. 

“Databricks’ trajectory is incredible and I’m excited to join this outstanding organization and be part of the next chapter,” said Kofoid. “I’ve seen first hand the critical role that data and AI play in fueling digital transformation and I look forward to helping customers around the world maximize the value of their data with this best-in-class lakehouse platform that is redefining the next era in the cloud.”

Shelley Leibowitz 

Elastic nominated Shelley Leibowitz to its board of directors. Leibowitz will bring more than 30 years of information technology and business governance expertise to the Elastic board of directors. She currently sits on the board of Morgan Stanley and several privately held fintech and information security companies.

”I can’t think of a more exciting time to join the Elastic Board,” said Leibowitz. “Few companies can boast the kind of rapid adoption Elastic has — from the developer community up to the CIO. Elastic makes it easy for organizations to spin up a project, and transform it into a large-scale deployment to search, observe and protect mission-critical systems. I am looking forward to working closely with the Elastic leadership team as they continue to build their robust developer community and further the scale into the enterprise.”

Barbara Morgan

AHEAD, a digital platform solutions provider, appointed Barbara Morgan to its board of directors. Morgan will help shape the company’s next phase of growth by focusing on scaling with purpose and expanding into areas with high-impact returns for clients. She recently served as chairman of the board for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of North Florida and currently serves on the Ponte Vedra YMCA board.

“Client centricity is at the core of AHEAD’s business,” said Morgan. “It’s what drew me to this role and it’s what will inspire me as we continue bringing the best solutions and services to the industry.”

Connie Puglia 

Reltio, a provider of the cloud-native master data management software-as-a-service platform, appointed Connie Puglia as its chief human resources officer. Puglia will provide strategic direction on people-focused HR strategies to the leadership team, employees, and the Reltio board of directors.

 “I have had the good fortune to build a career that couples my broad expertise in business strategy and analytics with my passion for Human Resources to architect highly-successful, global HR models for companies at all stages of development,” Puglia said. “I’m at my happiest when providing HR counsel to companies that are experiencing rapid growth, facing transformation, or creating disruption by helping them achieve a comprehensive HR stance that leverages a fully synchronized and engaged global workforce. Reltio is a cloud data management innovator, and provides me with another opportunity to contribute to a disruptive, rapidly growing company.”

Fermín Serna

Databricks, the data and artificial intelligence company, appointed Fermín Serna as its chief security officer. Serna brings more than 20 years of enterprise information security experience to Databricks and will oversee the expansion of the company’s mission-critical cybersecurity organization.

“Databricks is at the forefront of data and AI innovation as it pioneers the new lakehouse category and I am incredibly excited to join the leadership team during such a pivotal time,” said Serna. “I look forward to working with customers, partners and the world-class Databricks security team as we bring the company and product vision to new heights.”

Gustavo Stolovitzky

Sema4, an AI-driven genomic and clinical data intelligence platform company, appointed Gustavo Stolovitzky to its newly created position of chief science officer. Stolovitzky is a world-renowned expert in computational biology, disease modeling and nano-biotechnology, with over 25 years of experience in high throughput data analysis for biology and the application of technology to solve biomedical problems. Stolovitzky comes to Sema4 from IBM Research, where he spent 23 years and was appointed IBM Fellow.

“I am elated to join Sema4,” said Stolovitzky.  “Sema4 has a research division composed of top-notch experts developing algorithms and models for precision medicine that I am truly excited to join. With them, and in close collaboration with other parts of the company, we will work tirelessly to make the promise of AI-powered data-driven precision medicine come true.”

Peder Ulander

MongoDB, Inc., provider of the modern general purpose database platform, appointed Peder Ulander as its chief marketing officer. Ulander joined MongoDB from Amazon Web Services, where he held the role of head of enterprise and developer marketing. 

“As the world is moving from data centers to centers of data, customers need to rethink their data platform to accommodate the requirements of modern applications and new user experiences,” said Ulander. “Companies like MongoDB that maintain tenets aligned to the new market need – open source, available from the data center to cloud to edge, ability to perform at cloud scale with a pay as you grow model – are going to be the winners. I look forward to joining this incredible team on its journey.”

To read last month’s edition of Career Notes, click here.

Do you know someone that should be included in next month’s list? If so, send us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.